You Report, We Decide

Seven more Philadelphia police officers were removed from active duty yesterday in the probe of the news video that shows police beating and kicking three shooting suspects after a car chase Monday night. A review of an enhanced copy of the 11-minute Fox29 video enabled police investigators to identify the seven, said Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman. They bring to 13 – one sergeant and 12 officers – the number of police taken off street duty pending the probe’s outcome. Mayor Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey appeared on national televison yesterday morning on CNN and ABC, reiterating points they have made since Fox29 first aired the video Tuesday: The police conduct it shows is inexcusable and will be investigated and dealt with. “The conduct was unacceptable,” Nutter said on CNN. “It did not live up to the standards we have set for the Police Department.” [via INQUIRER]

The Kingwood teenager’s story of decapitating a corpse and using the head to smoke marijuana was so outlandish that at first Houston Police Department senior police officer Jim Adkins did not believe it. Houston police believe the teens disturbed the grave of an 11-year-old boy who died in 1921. The child was buried at an unmarked cemetery believed to be reserved for black veterans and their families, Adkins said. Jones claimed he and his friends used shovels to dig up the body and removed the corpse’s head with a garden tool, Adkins said. Jones also revealed he and the other two boys took the severed head to the juvenile’s home, where they used the skull as a “bong” to smoke marijuana, the officer said. Police made three trips to the heavily wooded, snake-infested graveyard near the Eastex Freeway feeder road and FM 1960 before finding the disturbed grave several days ago. “The grave was uncovered, and the headstone had been thrown off the grave and broken,” Adkins said.Because the grave is flooded with murky water from recent heavy rains, police have been unable to determine if the child’s casket is still in the ground.All three teens gave written and verbal confessions admitting they tried to dig up a body over a two-day period, Adkins said. But the boys told conflicting stories about whether they actually severed the head — so police aren’t sure if that gruesome detail really happened. “The ultimate goal will be to put this body back to rest,” Adkins said. [via HOUSTON CHRONICLE]

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Burma Junta Seizes Aid Shipments, U.N. Halts Disaster Relief

The U.N. World food Program has suspended aid shipments to Myanmar after the country’s military government seized all the food and equipment that had been flown into the country for cyclone victims. WFP spokesman Paul Risley said Friday that all “the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated.” The shipment included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits. He said the WFP “has no choice” but to suspend further aid shipments until the matter is resolved. Mr. Risley said it isn’t clear why the material was seized. Earlier, the U.N. blasted Myanmar’s military government, saying its refusal to let in foreign aid workers to help victims of a devastating cyclone was “unprecedented” in the history of humanitarian work, as the organization said it is putting together an urgent funding appeal to help victims. More than one million homeless people waited for food, shelter and medicine, many crammed in Buddhist monasteries or just camped in the open. Entire villages have been submerged in the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta with bodies floating in salty water and children ripped from their parents arms. At least 62,000 people are dead or missing. Aid groups have warned that thousands of children may have been orphaned and a medical disaster is waiting to happen. The U.N. estimates 1.5 million people have been “severely affected” and voiced “significant concern” about the disposal of dead bodies. [via WALL STREET JOURNAL]

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Friday, May 9th, 2008 at
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